Rain birds

Early in June, a tropical storm system worked its way across the Florida peninsula, bringing buckets of rain plus thunder and a few tornadoes. One morning our walk was aborted even before we reached the entrance of our birding patch.  During a break in the precipitation, we drove to nearby Chapel Trail preserve but the rains came again and "spoiled" my photo of a Loggerhead Shrike along the boardwalk:



The next day, keeping a wary eye on the radar, we ventured out early into our local wetlands for a bit of exercise. Clouds hung low over the gravel road and lake.

That blue dot is Mary Lou, already far ahead of me (click for enlarged view):





This Common Gallinule may be breeding here,  the first one I have seen here over ten years of observations:



A Northern Cardinal's song brightened the morning:



Mary Lou had completed the three-mile round trip before I reached the rookery at the far end of the road. I was anxious to learn whether any of the herons had nested successfully during our absence. It was gratifying to find fledglings of both Green Herons and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. 

Skies were very dark when I took these photos--

A pair of night-herons:



There was a third adult, plus this newly fledged juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron:



It was too dark to get a decent photo of a pair of Green Herons which were working to renovate their nest. It held 3 eggs when I photographed it on April 26, just before we left for Illinois:



Another pair of Green Herons at the opposite end of the rookery were watching over one of their progeny. I decreased exposure compensation to brighten the photo of this adult but it still looked gloomy:





It started drizzling just as I took a final photo of the juvenile Green Heron. It still had natal down on its head:



The next two days we had to be content with watching the wading birds from our back patio windows. A Snowy Egret found a school of tiny fish along the shore at the edge of our lawn:



Strike!



Success!



A White Ibis reflected in the lake as it foraged along a neighbor's fence.




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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue

Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh

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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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